JBL Live Pro+ compete at high end with other truly wireless earbuds
JBL Live Pro+
The JBL Live Pro+ earbuds feature large 11 mm drivers with the aim of producing superior sound quality in a stylish form factor. They also support wireless charging, active noise cancellation, water-resistance and voice clarity thanks to 3-mics technology.
The Live Pro+ feature a stem slightly longer than the AirPods Pro. However, instead of being round like the aforementioned, the Live Pro+ have square-shaped stems with touch controls rather than the squeeze and touch controls on the AirPods Pro.
On the inside of the stem are three brass charging pins, a tiny LED indicator light and a red-letter L or R. The black version I received for this review features a matt surface on the outside of the stem with a grey metallic finish on the outside and a black JBL logo.
The charging case is a matching matte black and a JBL logo embossed on the lid. The front features three LED lights to show the charge state and around the back is the USB-C charging port. The buds pop into the case easily and there’s no struggling to remove them either.
JBL Live Pro+ support the Google Assistant as well as Alexa and you can select whether to summon the assistant using the right or left earbud via the JBL Headphones app. If you use them on an iPhone, you can also summon Siri as long as you use the volume control gesture scheme.
They also support Google's Fast Pair which is a unique technology that uses Bluetooth Low Energy and the location of your Android phone to quickly identify Bluetooth accessories in close vicinity and connect them with a single tap. It even displays a picture of the connected device, similar to AirPods. This takes the pain out of pairing but you can still pair them manually, with a tap and long press on either earbud which will put them into pairing mode.
The Live Pro+ come with five pairs of ear tips of varying sizes. I found the default size fitted my ears perfectly. You can do an ear fit test using the JBL Headphones app and this confirmed my choice of ear tip size. The shape and weight meant they didn’t feel uncomfortable in my ears even when wearing them for hours at a time.
By default, tapping on the left earbud, you can activate and toggle between ANC and ambient sound control. Using the app you can switch between three different ANC modes. Everyday mode is designed to block general sounds.
Travel mode reduces the low hum from the engines of planes, trains and automobiles while Active mode seems to reduce the broadest range of sounds. I found Active the most effective and used it as my default since the differences between the different modes seem subtle. That being said, I wasn’t able to test them on a plane to see if Travel mode would be more effective than Active.
ANC performance is impressive and almost as good as the AirPods Pro.
The Live Pro+ can be charged via the USB-C port or wirelessly and each bud can provide up to six hours plus an additional 18 with the case when ANC is active. You should get up to seven hours with ANC off and an additional 21 hours from the case and 10 minutes in the case should give you up to an hour of listening.
In terms of audio codecs, the Live Pro+ feature SBC and AAC. To switch between these the Headphone app has a feature called Smart Audio & Video. The Audio mode has the best sound quality while Normal uses SBC for the most stable connection at the expense of a slight reduction in sound quality. Video has the least latency and maximises lip-sync. Since iPhones only use AAC, I couldn’t hear any difference when changing modes.
The Live Pro+ sound impressive with a deep bass that never gets overpowering. The highs are clear and crisp but I found I had to tweak the EQ via the app to get the most out of the midrange. Out of the box, they with a flat sound signature that may please some but the addition of an excellent EQ makes tweaking this to your liking a major bonus. You can even set custom EQ settings to suit different genres of music or create one for podcasts and another for movies.
The sound quality in calls is good but not exceptional. However, I didn’t get any complaints from the callers on the other end which I sometimes do and voices sounded clear and natural.
JBL Live Pro+ are able to compete at the high end with other truly wireless earbuds with a clean and refined design. They offer excellent comfort, stellar battery performance and have one of the best and most customisable companion apps. The sound quality is good and greatly improved with some minor tweaking using the custom EQ but some may prefer the flatter sound signature you get out of the box.
JBL Live Pro+ €189.99 at currys.ie
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